A top House Republican on Thursday urged President Barack Obama to replace the temporary government watchdog tasked with probing actions by the Interior Department, after accusing her of being soft on the same administration officials she was courting for the permanent job.  More »

Houston’s Linn Energy has inked a deal to buy Denever-based Berry Petroleum for about $2.5 billion. In the all-stock deal, Linn will expand its presence in the Permian Basin, East Texas, California and the Rockies as well as pick up a new core area in the Uinta Basin. Berry’s reserves are about 75 percent oil.  More »

Beleaguered Chesapeake Energy Corp. posted $940 million loss in 2012, as low natural gas prices dragged down its results throughout the year, the company reported Thursday. Its year-end results showed improvement, however, as the company posted a $257 million profit for the final quarter of 2012, a rebound from the previous three months when low natural gas prices led to a $2 billion loss.  More »

The flourishing energy sector along with across-the-board private sector hiring will keep Texas’ economic growth moving faster than the nation’s, an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas predicted Wednesday.  More »

With ceremonial hard hats on and shovels in hand, city officials and executives from CPS Energy and Nexolon broke ground Wednesday on the company’s solar panel manufacturing plant at Brooks City-Base.  More »

The 10 million-pound drilling rig for Shell’s Olympus oil platform will begin a four-day voyage along the Texas coast on Thursday to be joined with its massive hull. See photos of the record-setting platform’s construction and journey across the ocean.  More »

KBR reported a 67 percent plunge in fourth-quarter earnings, capping what Chief Executive Officer Bill Utt called “a disappointing year” for the Houston-based company.  More »

ConocoPhllips and PetroChina have established a joint study agreement to develop unconventional resources in China’s Sichuan Basin.  More »

Chesapeake Energy confirmed Wednesday that its top executive had taken personal loans from financial institutions to which the company also owed money, but said a review of that and other dealings proved that there were no conflicts of interest or other wrongdoing.  More »

Regardless of whether a market is moving up or down, there is always someone making money somewhere. There are various examples every day – be it a billionaire selling a stock short (i.e., Herbalife) or a company selling a meal short on ingredients (i.e., horsemeat economics). Some methods are legitimate, and some are not. But one thing [...]  More »

New fiber optic technology is removing some of the uncertainty in drilling, opening the door for well operators to have up-to-the-minute, detailed data about a well’s contents, temperature, pressure and even sound.  More »

Drilling specialists have been pumping heavy fluids into a gas well 50 miles off the Louisiana coast in a bid to halt natural gas moving among underground formations at the site.  More »